Managed to convert the last four "episodes" of Shawks to video (before it either didn't work or the computer lagged out) and will now have to go and alter the title for my Flash-Back videos to represent their being one more before I upload it.

Shawks was an old Flash series, I already uploaded the first ten episodes a long time ago.

I also finished my LED flasher, had some fun changing the resistors and playing with the pot to produce square waves through my headphones. 555s are always fun to play with.

Fired up the Bally Astrocade and GCE Vectrex for the first time in several months.

Swapped the STB Super Res 400 CGA card out of my Tandy 3000HL Personal Computer with an ISA Eagle II VGA Card and low and behold it actually gave me video!!

Now I just need to figure out how to resetup the HDD and get DOS on it, I tested the FDD with a PCjr IBM 2.0 diskette and it does boot from that so this should be easy but I have limited experience with computers of this particular era. Generally in my past if it wasn't working I didn't touch it so any help would be appreciated. 😁

How do you generally get an old 286 to see a HDD? This machine had two but in the DOS 5.0 install it only gives install to Floppy as an option. 😒

Brought all my boxes of graphics cards from the attic to the living room
🤣

I got a TDK Grafika system working. I inherited it from my wifes 93 year old grandma. According to the file system the last time the system was modified was '97. For an OEM system its pretty cool

King_Corduroy wrote:

Swapped the STB Super Res 400 CGA card out of my Tandy 3000HL Personal Computer with an ISA Eagle II VGA Card and low and behold it actually gave me video!!

Now I just need to figure out how to resetup the HDD and get DOS on it, I tested the FDD with a PCjr IBM 2.0 diskette and it does boot from that so this should be easy but I have limited experience with computers of this particular era.

Check this guide for installing msdos onto the hdd. Could be that u have to use hsect.exe first. But try starting at point 5.

http://support.radioshack.com/support_computer/doc1/1390.htm

Today I browsed through some local ads for PC parts.... God I feel I become a bit dumber every time I do that....
I just saw a "Duo Core HD 360" system, then something else missing its "rifle" (fuzil), which I hope means fuse (fusível), then an ad for Windows (some PC running Windows 7), then some atrocity so badly written I couldn't even understand what the guy was selling and, to top it off, an ad for a recycing center buying stuff for... recycling... with pictures of a lot that was recycled... with a nice AT case clearly visible.,,

The one which used to grate on me was the " Windows XP Vista" and "Windows XP 98" which lasted briefly into "Windows Seven XP" before people got their shit together and didn't list the OS at all. It was really common for a time to see machines like;

Microsoft Vista XP 98 Intel 4 512MB 250GB Memory RAM Pentium HT 200MHz Sound Blaster 24 ATI North Hull 01482 123 456 […]
Show full quote

Microsoft Vista XP 98
Intel 4 512MB
250GB Memory RAM
Pentium HT
200MHz
Sound Blaster 24 ATI
North Hull 01482 123 456

It used to annoy me to no end. Especially the constant shit you got from such people as they often had a complex which seems common here where they thought they were tech savvy because they had installed Bejeweled and Antivirus XP (Rogue) - therefore if you didn't agree with them or understand them you didn't know what you were talking about and were an idiot. Plus you ran Windows 98 or something and therefore you had to be an idiot and you computer was from 1993 because that was when Windows 98 came out... Before that it was that you were thick because you ran Windows 3.11 on your Pentium 75, their shitty 486 was better because it ran Windows 98 - everything had to run 98 - and that made it more powerful than yours and you were an idiot. Fucking idiots.

I wonder why I hate people sometimes, then I remember shit like that. It's funny really I guess.

And I hate seeing things get recycled. Apparently there's a place around here which sells stuff before sending it off and I will be finding out more, I am sure this will do wonders for my tendency to hoard things... In my defense, I do move things on now if I know I won't use them, instead of keeping them forever like I did before.

I think a lot of these folks have become Apple pod people.

Don't make me break out the picture again...

Actually, this one is more apt;

Another lingering annoyance was people bringing me one of their Windows XP Pentium 166s and asking me to "Reboot it." because it was slow. I would ask them what they meant but never get an explanation. At the slightest suggestion of moving their machine back to Win9X or even Win2K they would freak out and insist that wasn't the right thing to do. If I told them to buy a new machine they said I was ripping them off. Damn noobs never listened to reason either, not even when presented with the system requirements on the back of the box. Always had an argument,
"See, it says 233MHz. And that's the minimum, your PC is simply too old."
"It's not old, I've only had it five years."
"That's a long time for a computer, especially these days (early-to-mid 2000s) because things have improved quickly. I may be able to install a faster Pentium or a K6. Better yet, Durons are fast and cheap and I have some spares, so I can probably build..."
"No! Look, it says Pentium on the box there, so my machine IS good enough. You're trying to rip me off."
"You only have 32MB of RAM in this thing."
"I've had it two years it's not the PC you con."
"Right... I thought it was five years?"
"Two."
"Then you got ripped off."
"No, you're trying to rip me off."
"Do you want your shit fixed or not? I've got video cards to install for people that aren't complete assholes."
"Fuck you."
"Fuck you too, I had fun jacking off over those pictures of your wife you dumb shit."
> Rage ensued.

@HighTreason

I stopped doing computerrepairs on site because of issues like the ones you mention.
And people who ask me stuff like this:
"Hey, I got this old computer because I didn't want to spend any money here (this guy has university degree, married and plenty of money to spend) and I was wondering if you had some AGP card for free because the old one is too slow" and if I happened to have anything laying around?
Then he told me he wanted at least 6800 with 512MB RAM and 4GB of DDR-400 memory and all for free of course...as if this stuff is delivered on my doorstep by magic every day 🤣
...well...it's kinda sad really.

HighTreason wrote:

Don't make me break out the picture again... […]
Show full quote

Don't make me break out the picture again...

Actually, this one is more apt;

Another lingering annoyance was people bringing me one of their Windows XP Pentium 166s and asking me to "Reboot it." because it was slow. I would ask them what they meant but never get an explanation. At the slightest suggestion of moving their machine back to Win9X or even Win2K they would freak out and insist that wasn't the right thing to do. If I told them to buy a new machine they said I was ripping them off. Damn noobs never listened to reason either, not even when presented with the system requirements on the back of the box. Always had an argument,
"See, it says 233MHz. And that's the minimum, your PC is simply too old."
"It's not old, I've only had it five years."
"That's a long time for a computer, especially these days (early-to-mid 2000s) because things have improved quickly. I may be able to install a faster Pentium or a K6. Better yet, Durons are fast and cheap and I have some spares, so I can probably build..."
"No! Look, it says Pentium on the box there, so my machine IS good enough. You're trying to rip me off."
"You only have 32MB of RAM in this thing."
"I've had it two years it's not the PC you con."
"Right... I thought it was five years?"
"Two."
"Then you got ripped off."
"No, you're trying to rip me off."
"Do you want your shit fixed or not? I've got video cards to install for people that aren't complete assholes."
"Fuck you."
"Fuck you too, I had fun jacking off over those pictures of your wife you dumb shit."
> Rage ensued.

Lmao. Nail on the head...

I upgraded my "garage pc" a bit the other day.

Upgraded from 2x 2.5ghz quads to 2x 3.33ghz quad core xeons.
removed the cd drive and installed an LS-120 drive instead. The mobo bios does support ls-120 drives so I had to also install a pci -> sata card and subsequent sata -> ide adapter, but it works fully under windows 7!

I can post a few pictures if anyone is interested, but if a google search will do for now, I have this mobo: http://www.supermicro.com/products/motherboar … 100/X7DCA-L.cfm

in this case: http://sishardware.com/imgs/a/b/c/t/y/lian_li … _case_1_lgw.jpg

And for the record, the case is HORRIBLE when it comes to serviceability. Each side is held on with 6 easily lost special screws. thankfully the later 300 models fixed this.

I managed to revive an old P4 motherboard I salvaged from the recycling bin at work. I build a PC around it about a year ago just to have a fairly recent desktop PC to use for some projects but it had started to not boot up properly unless I left it powered on for a while. I discovered that a 2200uF cap near the front of the board was all puffed up so I replaced it yesterday with one I recovered from a dead PSU. The PC powers on first time every time now so that's good. This is my only PC with AGP now and I have a GeForce FX 5200 cheapo card in it which seems to work well enough for me.

Installed GEOS Geoworks Ensemble to my Tandy TL/2 today! Like it a lot but the CGA resolutions in monochrome make it kind of a pain to use. 🤣

Nice TL/2! Does Geoworks support 640x200x16 with an EGA card?

ahhh King_Corduroy!! u are making me want an old CGA/EGA monitor so bad..
the pics of the tandy 1000.. man.. that is such a strong memory for me, i had a 1000 aswell as a 3000
the 3000 was rockin.. i dont remember a 2000.. i dont think they made a 2000?

pretty sure i had this one: http://mo5.com/commun/images/ordinateurs/tand … andy1000sl2.jpg
my dad actually worked for radioshack so we got massive discounts on the tandy computers.

i remember thinking i had such a new upgraded system when i got that oen that had the 3.5 floppies instead of the 5.25"
musta been around 1985.. professional deskmate!!! 🤣 my first gaming experience was on that tandy with kings quest II
and then i went and tracked down a copy of kings quest 1 aswell because i loved II So much. this was before i ever saw a nintendo
i had an atari 2600 before that tho.. playing moon patrol + missile command.. + kings quest was wayyy better. kings quest II .. i saw a playthru on youtube that only took the guy 25 minutes.. but it took me weeks to finish that game when i was like 8 years old.

kings quest II + Space quest 1 -- probably my favourite memories of dos games.

Mucking around with a P4 3.2 GHz machine.

chrisNova777 wrote:

ahhh King_Corduroy!! u are making me want an old CGA/EGA monitor so bad.. the pics of the tandy 1000.. man.. that is such a st […]
Show full quote

ahhh King_Corduroy!! u are making me want an old CGA/EGA monitor so bad..
the pics of the tandy 1000.. man.. that is such a strong memory for me, i had a 1000 aswell as a 3000
the 3000 was rockin.. i dont remember a 2000.. i dont think they made a 2000?

pretty sure i had this one: http://mo5.com/commun/images/ordinateurs/tand … andy1000sl2.jpg
my dad actually worked for radioshack so we got massive discounts on the tandy computers.

i remember thinking i had such a new upgraded system when i got that oen that had the 3.5 floppies instead of the 5.25"
musta been around 1985.. professional deskmate!!! 🤣 my first gaming experience was on that tandy with kings quest II
and then i went and tracked down a copy of kings quest 1 aswell because i loved II So much. this was before i ever saw a nintendo
i had an atari 2600 before that tho.. playing moon patrol + missile command.. + kings quest was wayyy better. kings quest II .. i saw a playthru on youtube that only took the guy 25 minutes.. but it took me weeks to finish that game when i was like 8 years old.

kings quest II + Space quest 1 -- probably my favourite memories of dos games.

Lol I too have a 3000, mine is the 3000HL though.

The only problem with that thing is I can't get the MFM HDD to co-operate and since the late 1000's and the 3000 are so similar in spec I decided to just use the TL/2.

Also yeah they did make a Tandy 2000 but it's a 80186 processor:

bjt wrote:

Nice TL/2! Does Geoworks support 640x200x16 with an EGA card?

GEOS surprisingly has quite a lot of hardware in it's list but yeah I'm fairly certain with a proper card you could get that to work. I couldn't get GEOS to take advantage of the Tandy graphics though. 😒